Accessing Different Operating Systems

Question: I have a home network set up with 3 computers - one runs on XP; another on windows 2000; and the third on windows 98. They can all see each other but I cannot get the 98 machine to get into the windows 2000 machine. When clicking on the 2000 machine icon from the 98 machine in network neighborhood, I get a box asking for a password. I do not use individual log ons for the 98 machine and I'm not sure what password it is asking for. When the XP machine prompts me for the password for the 2000 machine, I put in the user name and password and it connects, but that same password isn't working on the 98 machine. Hope this makes sense. Any help would be appreciated.Richard

Answer: On windows 2000 and XP you have set up a list of users and their passwords. If the user and password are known on both computers then the user can access shared resources without being asked for further identification.

What you need to do is to set up the same on the Windows 98 machine. To start with Win 98 cannot access anything on a network unless the person using it signs on with a userid. The password at this point can be blank but to access resources over a network the computer needs to know who you are. The userid has to also be one that is known to the other computers in order for them to allow the user to share their resources. If you leave the password blank then the user can sign on without needing to supply a password but they will need to supply the password known to the other computer for that userid in order to access resources. If you set up to use the same password across all computers then once signed on there will be no additional requests to supply a password.

Even if all of the computers were running windows 98 the users would need to enter a userid in order to access the network. Only stand alone computers can avoid the need to have the user sign on.